There's a Brain in my Drain ... a song by Marc Nerenberg

I wrote this song very long ago, around 1969 or '70, while I was an art student in New York, which is where I first learned to play the banjo. It's full title is: "There's a Brain in my Drain, and There's a Drain in my Brain, and It's Open". The song contains walk-ons by various historical figures, both real and fictional. I admit that, at the time I wrote it, I actually knew very little about any of the real people mentioned therein - but they were all people whose work interested me.

I almost never play this song any more, with quite a few years going by between occasional revivals. This is a new arrangement that's somewhat more laid back, with more "air" in the banjo playing, than in the past.

This is one of the very few songs I've written that my late father ever commented on. He said, at the time that I wrote it, "Some of those verses are pretty good. Not all of them, but some them." It was my life experience that he never offered any praise without adding "but" at the end. The one and only time he ever came to see me perform in public, he said, "You were better than I thought you would be. But you have to work on your endings." True to form, I did muffle what should have been the very last note in this, so I quickly covered up with a final chord and harmonic chime.

This was played here on a Jason Romero Banjo, tuned eAEAC#, with a capo at the 5th fret, rendering the actual tuning to be: eDADF# played in D, and was recorded on 25 March 2018.